Backlash on Beazley reshuffle

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Labor leader Kim Beazley has received a pointed swipe from the
demoted Simon Crean and a broadside from left-wing union chief Doug
Cameron following the Opposition reshuffle.

And Labor wounds will be deepened again this week when a new
book on Mark Latham shows he has walked away from the ALP and
turned on it.

The backlash from Friday's reshuffle threatens to undo the good
Mr Beazley has done himself by the changes, which include
strengthening the party's voice in the immigration debate by
replacing the hapless Laurie Ferguson with NSW up-and-comer Tony
Burke.

Mr Crean, shifted from trade to regional development and
excluded from a new strategy committee, chose his words cautiously,
but his anger was clear. "It's not how I feel, it's what's right
for the party," he told The Sunday Age. "The experience of
former leaders is invaluable to the strategic way forward." He said
that was why he had, when leader, gone to Perth in 2003 to appeal,
unsuccessfully, to Mr Beazley to join the front bench.

Mr Beazley has added trade to Kevin Rudd's foreign affairs job.
The move was to bring Mr Rudd into the Labor Party's economic team,
and was at Mr Rudd's request. Mr Rudd, anxious for a big economic
job, rejected two domestic portfolios.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Doug
Cameron said Mr Beazley had delivered a "slap in the face" to
Australian workers by failing to split the responsibilities of
Stephen Smith, who has industry, infrastructure and industrial
relations. Mr Beazley has only trimmed some transport
responsibilities from Mr Smith's huge job.

"John Howard provides a full-time operative to destroy the
workers' rights, and yet Labor can only put a part-time person into
the job - it's ridiculous," Mr Cameron said. He said Mr Smith
should have either industry and infrastructure or industrial
relations.

"Labor is not as strong as it should be in industrial relations,
because the shadow minister has got too much to do," he said.
Although Mr Cameron is not saying Mr Smith should have lost
industrial relations, some union leaders are believed to have put
to Mr Beazley that Mr Smith should go from that job because he was
not sympathetic enough.

Journalist Bernard Lagan's Loner: Inside a Labor
Tragedy, a story of Mr Latham's rise to the leadership and
subsequent fall, is expected to contain campaign stories that will
add to friction.

Mr Latham, who gave the author considerable access in the
campaign and long interviews, vents his anger at party individuals.
He also makes it clear he does not think Labor will be much use to
anyone in future.

It is the old Latham group that has been most disadvantaged by
the Beazley reshuffle. They argue it is vindictive, aimed at those
who opposed Mr Beazley.

Craig Emerson, a Crean supporter dumped from the front bench by
his Queensland faction after the election, said last night: "When
Kim became leader again he said we needed to show each other
respect. He has not shown Simon Crean any respect."